Hollygrove shooting victim took leadership role in classroom and in band

Even when he was just a student at O. Perry Walker High School, Brandon Franklin was as much a role model as a peer, a former teacher said Monday.

Franklin, 22, who was shot to death Sunday night in Hollygrove, therefore easily grew into the role of teacher and mentor when he took a job within the school's music program at the beginning of this school year, said Mark Bailey, an assistant principal at Walker.

Bailey, Franklin's math teacher in his senior year three years ago, described the young father and musician as a bright student who often took on a leadership role, both in the classroom and the school's acclaimed marching band, where he was a drum major.

When Franklin was drum major, he was always ready to step into some other role, for instance if another musician didn't show up for practice, Bailey said. He could play any instrument, Bailey said.

Franklin, who also played saxophone in the To Be Continued Brass Band, was allegedly killed by 22-year-old Ronald Simms inside a house on the
3400 block of Livingston Street
on Sunday.

According to New Orleans police, Franklin was visiting an ex-girlfriend who had recently broken up with Simms and moved out of his house earlier that day. Simms returned to the woman's house and exchanged words with Franklin. That fight escalated, with Simms shooting Franklin multiple times before fleeing. Franklin died at the scene, the police said.

Simms turned himself in to police
shortly after the incident and provided a homicide detective with the murder weapon, police said. He confessed to the crime and was booked with second-degree murder, according to a police statement.

"Brandon was very, very determined. He was an old soul," said Wilbert Rawlins Jr., the band director at Walker, who first taught Franklin in middle school. "Everybody loved him. I don't see how something like this could happen."

Franklin and his band mates in To Be Continued formed the brass band as teenagers as a way to make some money, hopefully also keeping themselves out of trouble, Rawlins said.

The group is probably best known in New Orleans for regularly playing at the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets, although they also were the subject of a documentary called
"From the Mouthpiece on Back."
Last year, the group released a CD with a Los Angeles-based record company.

Although Franklin attended George Washington Carver High School before Hurricane Katrina, after the storm he followed Rawlins to Walker, wanting to obtain his high school diploma. Franklin wanted to become a drum major -- the lead position in a marching band -- from the time he was in the 8th grade, Rawlins said. "I said, 'You are a little too young for that,'" Rawlins recalled. "He said, 'Teach me how to become a leader.'"

Franklin not only was drum major for the Walker band, he was also drum major for a Louisiana Leadership Institute band that marched in the Rose Bowl, Rawlins said.

"Out of 200 kids, he rose to the top of that," said Rawlins, who described Franklin as "like a son."

Franklin's father was NOPD Officer Herman Franklin, who was recently charged in state court with public payroll fraud for allegedly working private details while he was on duty.

During the past school year, Brandon Franklin worked as a paraprofessional within Walker's music program, described by Rawlins as his "first assistant."

"Everything I asked of him, he gave," he said. Franklin was killed just two days before the Walker graduation, which will feature a performance by the band he helped lead.

Rawlins said he hopes to get together a band of musicians who have played with Franklin to play a memorial featuring his favorite songs.